


The BAU Moving On

by ShimmeringDarkness



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:35:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 20,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24013693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShimmeringDarkness/pseuds/ShimmeringDarkness
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner/Emily Prentiss, David Rossi/Erin Strauss, Jennifer "JJ" Jareau/William LaMontagne Jr.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	1. Background

This is a slightly realistic, AU situation, none on the team left the FBI entirely but most have moved up to higher positions in the brass, though it has become rather common knowledge that the old BAU A team members still tend to hang around the BAU’s floor, and can usually be found somewhere around the main bullpen. The BAU department now basically owns the whole floor as the department has grown. Strauss and Rossi got married with the full support of the team, after she had become more accepting and less like the Ice Queen. Strauss is completely retired and Rossi is mostly, but he still consults, and hangs around the bullpen quite often. Hotch has worked his way up to AD of the Criminal Investigations branch, which includes the BAU. He also married Emily, who’s the unit chief of the new BAU training unit for new agents, before they move up to one of the main three units, they mostly do local work and consults so she doesn’t have to travel. She adopted Jack, and also had a daughter with Hotch named Ella. Derek married Savannah and had Hank, and that’s it. Derek is the Section Chief over the BAU department, reporting to Hotch. JJ is the head over a new unit of the media department that’s been created, dedicated to the 4 BAU teams. She sorts through requests for BAU involvement and assigns them to one of the 4 media liaisons to each of the teams, who pass them to the team members and go on the cases, she doesn’t travel anymore, and she and Will, who is the captain at his district, only ever had Henry. Penelope is still as fun and crazy as ever, and is the technical analyst dedicated to all 4 teams. She loves it but she’s busy, but she definitely favors Emily’s team and the current A team. She’s not married and doesn’t have any kids of her own but still is an awesome aunt to the kids, even though they’re all grown up now. Reid has become the Unit Chief of the BAU team, so he reports to Derek, and has had the job for about 2 years, so he’s pretty steady and confident in it, though he sometimes shoots details of a case to his old team for some brainstorming ideas, he’s also not married and doesn’t have any kids.

The new BAU team has a lot of familiar names, as many of the BAU kids we love followed in their parent’s footsteps. Jack, Henry, and Hank are all part of the BAU A team, and love to poke fun at their “Old leader” as (just go with the age distortion here) Reid is 15 years older than all of them, which makes the old team laugh every time when they use his “boy genius” and other nicknames implying his youngness compared to them. Kai, Dave’s grandson also followed his adored grandfather’s footsteps into the BAU. There was also a woman named Josie Gomez who had joined the unit and been accepted into their odd family unit very quickly.

I’m planning for this to be a series of slightly related, but not all one story one shots surrounding the team in this basic AU setting. Sorry this isn’t actually a story yet, but I wanted to establish who’s who. Ages are slightly, okay more than slightly, flexible, as in almost all my stories, I adjust them slightly to make them fit better into my story. As always and unfortunately forever I don’t own CM or any of the characters from it. I will add to the tags and relationships as I potentially introduce new people into a story here or there. Also, unless I indicate in the notes before a chapter a change in the situation, this chapter is pretty much the background information you need to know.


	2. Ella's Abusive boyfriend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: The “BAU kids” are all 20 something and the adults are like 20ish years older + or - a couple years, despite the inaccuracies that poses. Ella is 20, Kai is 22, Hank is 22, Henry is 25, Jack is 26.

The whole family was gathered in the backyard of Rossi’s mansion. When the kids were still teenagers it had come to be called “BAU central” jokingly, but accurately, and the name stuck slightly. Rossi had actually ended up adding on to the liveable space in his house, as well as completely finishing out his basement, as well as adding onto the pool house, to where it was now just entertainment and recreation central, and had a mostly enclosed pathway up to the main house for DC winters. The main floor remained much the same as it had for years now, as did the second floor after rooms had started getting designated after the house became central to almost all of the family's get-togethers because they needed the space. The first floor was mainly communal rooms, such as the massive dining room, kitchen, living room, game room (which was much less used now that the pool house had been added on to” as well as Rossi and Strauss’ bedroom, and two guest bedrooms, along with a bathroom on each side of the floor. The second floor housed JJ and Will’s bedroom/suite, and Hotch and Emily’s bedroom/suite, as well as Derek and Savannah’s, Penelope’s, and Reid’s. Rossi had also finished out the third floor while the kids were in their teens and given them all a bedroom each of them a bedroom up there, as well as a few bathrooms. Though Jack and Henry had shared a bedroom when they were little, they eventually wanted their own, and Dave had been more than happy to let each of them, as well as Kai and Hank, design their own rooms and change them as they grew up. 

The mansion was the home of many good memories, and many awful arguments, usually between parent and child. Almost all of the adults, and kids, who spent so much time there as a family, could remember the first time it had become so important that all of the then teenagers have their own bedrooms, and personal space. Jack had been 14 and in full-blown teenager moodiness, and had been fighting with both his father and Emily for nearly a week and a half. That night they had tried to sit down and have a civil conversation, which had not worked out, apparently ended in a screaming match that only Emily, Hotch and Jack, and maybe Ella, knew the details of, before Jack had gone off the edge and ran out the front door, slamming it shut behind him with only his phone. Assuming he had just gone outside to cool down, they let him be for 15 minutes before Hotch walked outside and nearly had a heart attack when he couldn’t find Jack. It turned out Jack had walked to his friend's house down the street, but he had nearly given his parents a heart attack by shutting his phone down completely so they couldn’t even call his Aunt Pen to find him. Since that day, Dave had made it clear to the entire family, but especially the kids, that while running away was not a good option, if they needed a safe place to get away from their parents, no matter what, they were always welcome to spend a night at his mansion, where they would be safe, and get some space and privacy. They all had keys, and a special alarm code that sent him an alert to which one had entered, but could use at any time, in case he was away at the time. Parents and kids alike had thought the offer would rarely get used, but the stubborn alpha kids of a bunch of alpha FBI agents, Dave couldn’t say he was surprised with how often one of them showed up at his door, especially once they were 16 and could drive themselves to get away from their parents. Dave was pretty flexible when those situations happened. He was there for them to talk things out if they needed, or an ear to rant to about how unfair their parents were being, which he very occasionally passed on hints to the fighting parents about maybe taking a step back and looking at the issue from their child's perspective rather than an agent who's seen to much back in the world. He would hold them if they just needed a hug and some love, or leave them alone if they wanted to just be alone for a couple of days. The basement was also a hot spot, as the entire family was so active, there was a smallish gym where Jack had first demanded Morgan to let him work out with him when he hit high school and needed to impress the ladies, and where Jack had passed those lessons onto Henry only a year later. Overall, the house was full of good memories, and everyone was always grateful to Dave and Erin for putting up with them and letting everyone gather there.

And today, in Rossi’s backyard, the laughter was flowing, as were the drinks, and when Jack casually grabbed all the kids, including Ella beers from a cooler getting a glare from his father who saw and said: “You are aware she’s only 20 right?” Jack shrugged and met his father’s glare easily saying “Eh, she’s nearly 21, like a couple of months, it’s not a big deal.” Hotch spoke again both mildly irritated, and amused, saying “I’ll be sure and remind you of that when you catch your child drinking underage someday.” Jack just rolled his eyes maturely at his father, before saying “Besides, our team has 3 days off so a bunch of us are spending the night here and she is too, so it’s not like she’s going to drive drunk or anything, and we need a vacation which means she does too because now that she’s on summer vacation from college right now, she gets the complaints from pretty much all of her brothers, constantly.” Noticing Spencer walking up to him where they were next to a table with some food said with a slight mischievous tone, “You know, I should talk to someone about that, we need more vacation days.” Henry, who also walked up right then, said dramatically “I know right! We should figure out who to talk to about that,” Sending a meaningful look at his best friend's father. Spencer passed Jack, gently slapping the back of his head for that comment, as Hotch did the same to Henry who pouted. Hotch just shook his head, “Preaching to the choir  _ children _ , believe me, the current director is a serious stick in the mud.” As usual, Jack protested part of that statement before saying “I AM NOT a child!” Henry crossed his arms and childishly before adding in an exaggerated young child voice “Yeah Uncle Aaron, we’re not children, were  _ supervisory _ special agents.” Hotch smirked, “Mhm, and yet,  _ children _ , you're still acting like petulant 6-year-olds.” Jack let out a dramatic pout while Henry looked around, and seeing his parents just across the yard yelled out “MOOOOOM Uncle Aaron’s being mean to me and Jack.” She turned with a ‘are you serious right now’ look on her face before saying “And as you all love to point out, you're not 5 anymore, deal with it maturely, like the adults you have somehow fooled the FBI into believing you are.” “Hey!” Henry protested while Will snorted before agreeing with his wife saying “Truth hurts son.” Jack and Henry walked across the yard to sulk dramatically, as the get-together moved on. 

Rossi was talking with Hotch and Morgan by the grill a little while later before saying “I know she has her own apartment now, but have you noticed anything off with Ella lately? She’s been really quiet and withdrawn today. Also, when has she ever not stripped down to her bathing suit and flip flops right away when she got here, she’s wearing tennis shoes and all her regular clothes too.” Morgan nodded as he watched Hank, Henry, Jack, and Kai play soccer while Ella was off to the side on her own laying on a pool lounger, “Yeah, I kinda noticed that too, Hotch, is she okay?” Hotch shook his head as he looked around the backyard as well before saying “Something’s been off with her the last couple times she’s come over for dinner, but I’m waiting for her to say something.” Derek nodded slightly before saying “Yeah, but I’m worried about the little princess.” Hotch smiled, ever amused by Derek’s consistently still calling Emily ‘Princess’, and Ella ‘Little Princess’ no matter how much either of them say they are too old for both nicknames. Hotch spoke after a moment “I think she’s been dating someone for nearly 6 or 7 months now I think, I’m not too sure, she hasn’t seemed to want anyone to meet him yet.” Derek spoke up quickly “And why not? Has my baby girl run his name yet?” Hotch shook his head “I don’t know, from what Em’s mentioned I think it seems like he’s not a big fan of Law Enforcement, so she doesn’t want to introduce him to her practically entire family of Federal Agents and a cop is my best guess but I really don’t know. And no, I don’t believe Garcia has run his name, I only even know his first name is Alex, I don’t know his last name to give to her anyways.” Derek nodded slowly before saying “Okayyy, and I know she’s not, but I feel like she’s practically my daughter, and that is raising all kinds of red flags for me.” Hotch and Rossi both nodded their agreement but Hotch said: “Privately, it is for me too, and it’s starting to get there for Em, she’s not used to Ella trying to hide relationships from her, but I don’t want to interfere in her life unnecessarily, she is an adult.” The other two nodded, but none of the three looked totally happy; they didn’t know everything there was to know about this Alex who dared to date Ella.

Across the yard, Ella had been relaxing near the pool, trying to get some rest in, knowing she wasn’t going to get any when she got home, her boyfriend had told her if she went she would have to make up for it when she got home. She got pulled into her thoughts, yes, she knew he was abusive, but it was mostly when he was drunk, or if she did something wrong or didn’t tell him she was going somewhere. She knew she was making excuses, and that she shouldn’t be, she knew she could tell any of her brothers or aunts or uncles and he would be out of her life the next day, but she didn’t want that, he didn’t do anything that wasn’t justified, or reasonable considering she was a bit forgetful. Sometimes she knew she needed someone with a medical degree to look at an injury, but she didn’t want to go to the ER too many times or it would be suspicious that he was doing something wrong when he really wasn’t, she just didn’t want to deal with the looks and the questions. Unfortunately, today was one of those days, she knew her ankle was hurt pretty badly, it was aching, and when she’d gotten dressed this morning, the slightest bump sent her running for some Advil. Her ribs were dying too, but she didn’t think anything was wrong there, they were just sore, and she had a headache, she guessed she might have a minor concussion but nothing she hadn’t dealt with before. Fortunately for her, there was a doctor less than 30 feet away that would help her, guaranteed. She knew her aunt Savannah would do practically anything for her, now she just had to decide if she thought she would keep it a secret from even Derek. A jolt of pain through her ankle and ribs as she shifted her body was enough to answer her question that yes, she did need Savannah to check her ankle. Less than five minutes later she noticed Savannah separate herself from the girls she was talking with to go throw some trash away, so she pushed herself to her feet ignoring the spike of pain through her stomach and intercepted her before she could get back to the girls. 

“Hey Savannah, do you have a second?” 

“Yeah, of course, El, what’s up?”

“I uh, I tripped on my apartment stairs yesterday, and I think I messed up my ankle, can you uh...?” Savannah interrupted her with a laugh “And you need me to check it to make sure you can still be a stubborn Hotchner and not get any real medical checkups, right, you and every other cop and agent out here, yeah of course, here?” “First off, I think I should be offended being lumped in that group, I’m not an agent, I’m doing pre-Law, and second, inside please, I just don’t want anyone else to see and freak out.” Savannah nodded and walked with her inside, noting the slight limp the Ella was trying, and slightly failing to hide. They walked in and Savannah said “Living room couch or you want to go upstairs?” “I would say upstairs but that is far more walking than I have any interest in doing, so couch I think.” Savannah nodded and the two started to walk to the living room but Ella paused outside Dave’s office, “Could we just use the sofa in here, I think someone’s less likely to walk in then, and I don’t want people, and of the family, to worry, and we both know they worry about me extra since I’m the little sister, the only girl.” Savannah nodded with an odd smile before saying “I may not be a profiler, but I think one of those boys out there cares about you more than as a little sister babe.” “What, Henry, no wait, no, of course not, none of them would.” “Oh but you want Henry to don’t you? And I’m pretty sure he does darlin’.” “No way, he’s Jack’s best friend, all the guys, they all go out and be all kinds of macho men for the FBI and then they need someone to protect at home, and since I’m not an agent, well there you go.” Savannah laughed “No, you may not be an agent, but you’ve obviously picked up some profiling, and I think, if you watched Henry, you would see that he’s interested in more than a sibling relationship with you too... Alright, let’s deal with this right now, soooo.... your mom mentioned a boyfriend?!?” Savannah said in a sing-songy voice. Ella groaned “I am 20 years old and yet everyone still treats me like it’s my first boyfriend wanting to know all the details.” “Fine,” Savannah sighed, “Be no fun like that, let me grab a couple of things from my room really fast, I will be back in less than 1 minute.” “You’re good Aunt Sav.” “Aww, you haven’t called me that in so long, it’s cute El-belle.” “Yeah yeah, okay doctor me so I can go back out please?” “I was right, agent or not, you’re just as bad as all of them, need to go go go. 1 minute.” Savannah darted out of the room almost closing the door behind her and slipping up to her and Derek’s room, to grab her mini medical bag she had with her pretty much 24/7 with this extended family’s tendency to get hurt.

She walked back down to Dave’s office, guessing since Ella had been walking and waited so long to tell someone it was just a basic sprain so she had some stuff to wrap it up, and meds that she knew her niece would fight, but El was still getting them if she thought she needed them. Savannah gently knelt down next to Ella before saying “Which ankle was it, sweetheart?” Ella pointed to her right one as Savannah began gently pulling off both her shoes. “Why are you taking both off?” Savannah looked up “So if there’s any swelling I can compare it to what it should be.” “Okay, but I can tell you now it is.” Savannah just finished with her shoes trying to be gentle around the winces Ella was making, before pulling both her socks off and nearly gasping, just barely holding it in. Her ankle was swollen to at least 1.5 times as big, and there were black and blue bruises covering a couple of inches up her leg to just above her toes. Savannah felt around it extremely gently, but could still tell she was hurting the youngest Hotchner as she did her best not to squirm in pain. Savannah knew this wasn’t from falling down the stairs, but if she was downplaying this that much, she might be hurt somewhere else too. “El, are yu hurt anywhere else, it must’ve been a pretty bad fall for something like this, did you hit your head of anything?” Ella looked away before saying “You promise not to tell  _ anyone _ , mom, dad, Jack, even Uncle Derek?” Feeling like there was no way she was going to like what she was about to hear, Savannah nodded slowly and Ella looked down before saying “I think I might have a little concussion, and uhm, my ribs hurt too.” “God El, why didn’t you go to a doctor, or me at least sooner?” Ella just looked away so Savannah sighed and gently set her swollen and dark ankle on the coffee table saying “I’ll come back to that, concussion check first before I forget.” She pulled a pen light out of her bag flashing it over her eyes making Ella wince as it made her headache worse and making her squeeze her hands, answer basic questions, and all the other basic concussion stuff. Savannah stepped back and stood up out of her squat saying, “Slight concussion but I would guess it’s already healing everything is equal just slightly slow. When did this happen again?” “Uh yesterday I think.” “You think?” “I’m clumsy, you know me, I trip on stuff all the time.” Savannah said nothing and moved back to Ella’s ankle, gently trying to bend and feeling the outside asking what hurt and to try and push against her hand. She set her foot back down on the coffee table before saying “Okay ribs, lay back on the sofa and push your shirt up a bit.” Ella laid back but hesitated saying “You’re not going to tell anyone right? No matter what?” Savannah sighed, getting nervous, but nodded and said: “No, I won’t, unless it's life-threatening because I’m not going to hide that from my niece’s parents, 20 years old or not.”

Ella didn’t move for a second before saying “Okay, it’s not so that’s okay.” She shifted her body slightly to push her shirt up wincing as she twisted her torso, and this time Savannah couldn’t hold in the quiet gasp. Her niece’s stomach was a mass of dark blue and purple bruises, as well as some greenish ones that were starting to heal. “Ella, I’m going to give you another chance to come clean right now because that did not come from falling down a couple of stairs.” She said her voice getting sterner. Ella winced, which she caught but said: “Seriously, it was a long fall, a whole flight you know, I just got banged around.” Savannah took a breath but nodded knowing she would get nowhere at the moment before gently running her hands along Ella’s sides and thinner stomach than she ever remembered, trying to feel for any ribs out of place. Satisfied nothing was out of place and risking puncturing anything, though definitely suspicious of cracks, pulled her niece's shirt down before helping her sit up and propping her foot up again before settling on the chair next to the sofa and saying “El, I’m going to be honest with you, I know those bruises, and more than likely your ankle and concussion didn’t come from falling down stairs, you’ve always told me everything, who did this to you?” “No one, I swear, it was just a flight of stairs in my apartment building.” “You know how I know it wasn’t, because you’re stomach, the bruises are different colors, some are at least a week or two, maybe more old, others look like they did happen yesterday, who did this to you?” “No one, Aunt Sav, I was just clumsy.” “Was it your boyfriend, Alex right? You’ve been dating him what 8 months now?”

Ella hesitated a fraction of a second and Savannah knew she hit the nail on the head but the look passed after a millisecond and Ella said: “No, of course not, he loves me, how could you suggest that.” Savannah sighed having gotten her answer but needing to think on what to do, slid off the chair and pulled out some supplies, wrapping Ella’s ankle up as tight as possible without causing more pain, and hiding most of the bruising, before putting a special brace she had on over top and asking “You know how to wrap an ankle right?” Ella nodded and she said, “Alright, both of those come off for showers, wear them 24/7 otherwise and I want to see you in my office Monday morning for x-rays, I’m pretty sure your ankle is broken and I’m worried about your ribs.” “Sav, I’m fine, Ice, Ibuprofen, I’ll be good pretty quickly.” “No, you need x-rays, that ankle is not good, I’m pretty sure you’re going to need at least a boot.” “No, everyone will be able to see that, I don’t want anyone knowing.” “You. Need. X-Rays. Ella. Hotchner. What. Is. So. Hard. To. Understand?” “I just don’t want to have to come to see you in the office.” “Or you can go see your regular doctor and explain all your injuries again.” Ella paused “Uh you are still my physician on record Sav.” “So you just haven't gone to the doctor in nearly 3 years.” “Are we seriously going to argue about that?” “Yes ma’am, I seem to remember your mom saying that you and her had an argument for your 18 year appointment that you were now an adult and could handle it, but the last time you came to see me was you 17 year with Em, so I’m not sure how you’ve been handling it.” “I’m fine though.” Savannah snorted and waved a hand at her ribs and foot “Right, I’m sure you are, so you didn’t have your 18-year appointment, or one last year or this year considering you are nearly 21, correct?” Ella sighed but shook her head “Fantastic, yet another reason you are coming in on Monday, or if you’d prefer I’ll have Emily and Aaron come in here and you can tell them everything?” “You promised!” “I promised if it wasn’t life-threatening, based on the state of your stomach you're lucky I’m not demanding x-rays and an ultrasound today for internal bleeding, so your choice.” “Fine, Monday.” “Mhm, lay on your stomach for a second.” Ella just stared at her confused but after a momentary stare down, Ella shifted her leg to the couch and laid onto her stomach. She titled her head to see Savannah pull out a syringe or something and started freaking out, quickly sitting back up, barely containing her whimper of pain from moving too quickly, making Savannah look at her with raised eyebrows and pause what she was doing so Ella spoke: “No way in hell are you stabbing me with anything, you know better than anyone other than mom and Jack how much I hate needles, how much they scare me.” Savannah sighed “Yes, I am, I don’t know how you’re even walking right now with as much pain as I suspect you’re in.” Ella interrupted “I’m a tough Hotchner.” Savannah snorted “Oh, believe me, I know, that doesn’t make it a crime to take pain medication.” Ella whined for a moment before seeing her Aunt’s expression and saying “I have no way to get out of this without you dragging mom or dad or Jack in here do I?” “Nope or I could bring Henry in if you’d prefer?” Ella shot her a glare and said: “I thought we established I had a boyfriend already, Alex, remember?” Sensing an opportunity said, “And yet we’ve never met him.” “He doesn’t like law enforcement, okay, and in case you forgot everyone currently in that backyard is some kind of law enforcement.” Ella nodded “I’m just giving him more time to you know, get used to the idea.” “Right, annnnd you’ve had enough time to get used to the idea, so lay back on your stomach El.” Ella sighed but maneuvered herself back flat before saying “Wait why? You can just stab my arm right?” Savannah shook her head, “Nope, it’s a not fun one.” Ella sighed but just hid her face in her arms trying to not be scared and failing miserably at it. Savannah prepped the shot and slid her shorts off and wiped her skin off, internally cringing at the couple bruises she saw there but noticing Ella shaking slightly set the shot down, and moved up to Ella’s face “Are you really that scared sweetheart?” Ella nodded trying to not cry, while tears slid out slowly, and Savannah softened, remembering the massive arguments she witnessed between Ella and Emily in her office, even at 15, 16, 17 Ella would break down in tears if someone even mentioned she needed a shot. Savannah rubbed her back for a minute before grabbing the shot and quickly putting it in with no warning, slowly pressing the medicine inside. Ella tensed up while the needle was in her, having not been expecting it, but as soon as Savannah pulled the needle out and capped it, putting it away in a hard plastic container to throw away at home, before pulling Ella into a hug until her tears stopped. “Doing okay now, El-belle?” Ella nodded and pushed herself off her aunt’s lap and standing, before saying “Am I good to go back out now, before someone comes looking for us?” Savannah nodded and followed her niece out of the office and going to put her bag away before she, too, headed out to the back yard.

The rest of Saturday passed smoothly, and Ella was vaguely aware people seemed to be watching her more than usual, so she tried to act normal, while not moving around too much, and as much as she hated to admit it, whatever savannah had given her earlier was really helping. Sunday she spent pretty much lounging around her apartment, and since her boyfriend was out of town for work, she could actually relax. Monday brought a much earlier wake-up call than she’d like while on summer vacation from college, but she knew she needed to head to the hospital to see Savannah or she would call her parents and then she’d have all kinds of excuses to make up that she didn’t want to deal with. She was in pretty early, not that a hospital’s ever closed, but the first non-emergency appointment Savannah had scheduled that day. She still had the brace wrapped around her ankle, and if she was honest, the only reason she was still walking as easily as she was. A nurse called her back and handed her a gown to change into, yet another reason she disliked going to the doctor. Savannah walked in, in her regular work clothes, since she only wore her scrubs if she was going into surgery, and greeted Ella with a hug, gentle around her ribs though.

“Hey, El-belle! How are you feeling?” 

“Okay, my ribs hurt way less, and my ankle hurts even worse.” Savannah frowned “Alright, I’m still going to X-ray both but that makes me less worried about your ribs. Can you lay back for me though, I want to look at them again before getting the X-rays. Ella laid back gently and making sure the sheet was covering her lower half, pulled the gown up to just under her chest. Savannah ran her hands along her ribs and took in the bruises, noticing there didn’t look to be new ones and that everything already looked like it was healing, she was wondering if maybe she was wrong, and Ella truly had just taken a bad fall down the stairs. Ella went for her X-rays and when she got back to her exam room, Savannah was waiting for her with a smile. “All good girlie?” Ella nodded “Yep, ready to blow this popsicle stand.” Savannah laughed and guided her back onto the bed “Not quite yet, sorry El, I need to look over your…. And your x-rays are in.” Savannah clicked around on the computer for a minute making occasional noises under her breath before looking to Ella with a slight frown. “Alright, I don’t see anything in your abdomen so I think you and your ribs are good there, just very bruised, ice, rest, you know the drill. As to your ankle, it’s not good, but it's better than it could’ve been. I don’t see any major ligament or tendon damage, but you definitely have at least two bones broken. Normally I would say surgery to re-set things and then cast and crutches, but knowing you, we can try a boot and crutches first.” “Yes, no surgery.” Savannah laughed “You haven’t even heard the conditions for the boot first.” Ella shrugged “Doesn’t matter, it’s not a cast and no surgery, meaning my parents won’t find out.” Savannah sighed at that still not confident that Ella had actually fallen down the stairs since she was so desperate to hide it, said: “Anyways, if we try the boot and crutches, I want you to stay off it as  much as possible, and you’re one summer vacation, so relax, if you’re sitting down I want that foot up, If you're walking a ways you absolutely must use crutches, no ands/ors about it, ice it - lots, pain killers, if you’re in pain, not waiting until your about to collapse from pain before you take them, and that boot comes off only for a shower and you keep your weight off that foot in the shower if you have to sit down so be it, got me?” Ella nodded “Got it.” “And one last thing, I want to know how it happened, and stop trying to feed me that you fell down the stairs, especially now that I have x-rays, I know you’re lying, so…” 

Ella broke eye contact with her aunt, staring at her lap before whispering “I did fall down the stairs, I wasn’t lying about that.” Sav raised her eyebrows “And?” Ella let out a breath and said: “But that happened 2 weeks ago and it was 3 steps.” Savannah nodded finally getting somewhere with this, “So how did this happen? Was it Alex?” Ella nodded a fraction before saying “It wasn’t anything I didn’t deserve though, I messed up, and he’d had a bad day at work on top of that, so really it’s not like he’s doing anything wrong.” Savannah felt her heart ache for her niece who was practically her daughter “No, no, El, babe, look at me… you did not, do not, will not ever, deserve someone to physically hurt you, no matter what. Derek would never hit me because he loves me, your dad would never hit your mom, because it’s not right and she doesn’t deserve it, and they love each other. You absolutely do not deserve to be hit, or abused in any way.” “This is why I didn’t say anything, you’re making a big deal out of nothing, he loves me, he doesn’t do anything I don’t deserve, or need, he’s helping it’s all good, I promise.” Savannah sighed and barely held back tears “I don’t think you believe that El, you wouldn’t have tried to hide it from us if you truly believed that. You’re trying to make excuses for him because deep down you know it's wrong.” Ella shook her head “But I love him, he loves me, that’s why he does it, he doesn’t like hurting me, he’s trying to help me be better, teach me to do better.” “El, baby, you’re not stupid, you’ve spent enough time around the team, your parents, brother, people make up all kinds of lies, they rationalize the bad, but you know it’s not okay, one word and the team would be all over this guy.” “No, no, you can’t tell them, I don’t want them to know.” “You know what I think El, I think you’re trying to rationalize this, I think you’re ashamed of yourself because your family is a bunch of federal agents and that’s why you don’t want people to know. But El, you shouldn’t be, this isn’t on you, this is all on your asshole boyfriend, okay, please understand that.” Ella just shrugged but mumbled, “Who’s been teaching you stupid profiling?” Savannah snorted slightly and said, “Eh, you do it pretty well too, but baby, even if you don’t want to tell any of the team, the family, you can file a report at DCPD get him out of your life, keep yourself safe, please?” Ella just shrugged. “He loves me though, I love him, I can’t Sav.”

The two fell into silence for a moment before Savannah said “Let me take pictures of everything, add them to the medical report, and then every time he hurts you, take more pictures, build up a case for when you’re ready if you can’t now. Please babe? You don’t have to do anything with them if you don’t want to, but just in case, you’ll have evidence, please?” Slowly Ella nodded, and Savannah took it as a slight victory, but she would take it as a start.” She took the pictures and sent them up to Ella’s medical file to be attached, before taking a breath and saying “Alright, we’re going to put this boot on and get your crutches set, and then you’ll be free. Sound good?” Ella nodded and 10 minutes later with a couple more loving, reassuring words, a hug, and a kiss, let her get out of there, after proving she wasn’t going to kill herself on the crutches.

Ella made her way home, but when she got there, Alex was waiting, and boy did he looked pissed. “Where the hell have you been, woman!?!?” Ella knew she was in for it and looked down saying “I was at the doctor’s, Savannah saw me at the family get together on Saturday and made me come in this morning. I told her I’d fallen down a flight of stairs, that’s how I hurt my ankle.” Alex nodded approvingly “Good girl, you’re learning, but you still have to be punished for not telling me where you were going, don’t you.” Ella nodded dejectedly, knowing this was coming. Alex slammed a fist into her jaw, sending her backwards into the wall with her neck snapping back. Crash…. Bang…. Thud…. “Alex! I’m Sorry!”.... Smash…. “I’m Sorry, I’ll do better, Please!” Thud…Bang...Thump At that point Ella felt like she was barely conscious, she knew she likely had another concussion, and this quickly after, it couldn’t be good. Leaving her laying on the hallway floor Alex stomped around the apartment for a moment grabbing things before kicking her side and spitting “I’ll be back in the morning, this place better be cleaned up.” He stomped out the door and slammed the door behind him, Ella allowing herself to just lay for a bit trying to clear the dizziness. But as the dark tiredness threatened to pull her under, she pushed herself to her feet and began to slowly make her way around the apartment, cleaning up the broken vase, and straightening everything that had been knocked about during the fight. She rested her foot up, after taking some ibuprofen and making up a few ice bags, on the couch, icing her re-aching ribs, her ankle and the back of her head that had hit the wall.

She faded in and out of sleep, trying not to let herself sleep for too long at a time when around 4:30 she was startled by the doorbell ringing. She slowly dragged herself to her feet, and forgetting that new bruises were likely visible and the melted ice bags had fallen off while she napped, pulled the door open saying “How can I…. oh, Savannah, what’s up?” Savannah took in her niece’s expression and gasped at the bruises she could see forming, gently pushing her inside and shutting the door behind her Savannah whispered “Is Alex here?” Ella shook her head “No, he left, he won’t be back until tomorrow morning.” “Oh my God girl, what happened?” “Alex was here when I got back from the appointment, he was pissed that I had gone somewhere without telling him.” “I’m so sorry, El, and I made you come, I’m so sorry if I’d known…” Ella shook her head and groaned at the motion, “It’s not your fault, I knew it would happen, I chose to come anyway.” “You knew?! You knew that would happen?” Ella shrugged slightly, “I was pretty sure he’d be home before I got back, and if he was, well. He’s predictable.” Savannah sighed “I’m sorry, and I pretty much gave you no choice, I forced you to come, oh El baby, please, let me help you get away from him, you can’t think this is okay, it’s not safe, he doesn’t love you if he’s doing this to you for not getting permission to go somewhere. Please El.”

The two sat in silence for a moment before Ella nodded slightly “He doesn’t love me, Savannah!” She whined pitifully at the end and latched onto Savannah’s arm, “I thought he, he said he loved me, I-I don’t know what now. What am I supposed to do?” Knowing she was the only one currently thinking, at least partially, clearly, Savannah said, “You let me take more pictures, give you a quick checkup to confirm that I can already tell you have a concussion, got to DCPD, file a report with as much evidence as we have, and for now, get the process of getting a restraining order started. Okay?” Getting what she vaguely viewed as permission, acceptance, or at least not rejection, quickly snapped pictures of what she could, bandaged a cut on Ella’s face, felt her arm, and decided it was okay for now at least, and that her ribs weren’t in danger. She guided Ella up, and to grab her Driver’s License, Keychain, phone, and wallet with her student ID, before leading her down and out to her car, knowing she was in no condition to drive right now. Ella quickly spoke up as soon as the car started moving, “We can’t go to the precinct near here, Sav, we need to go to a station farther away.” Savannah looked at her quizzically but not changing direction “Why not?” “Will’s the captain at this one.” “And we need to file a report at the precinct in which your house is part of their district, besides WIl’’s the captain, he’s probably too busy, we probably won’t even see him and the next one isn’t for a long way, this precinct is one of the biggest and covers a lot of areas, it’ll be fine El.” Ella sighed but nodded her acceptance.

Savannah pulled into the station, gently supporting Ella as the two walked in and up to the receptionist’s desk. “Hello, how may I help you ladies today?” “We, well my niece needs to file a report.” “Of course, what kind of report?” “Um, her boyfriend, he’s abusive, and we uh, need to file for a restraining order.” The lady’s eyes widened in sympathy, taking in Ella’s bruises and bandages, nodding “Of course, if you can wait for a moment, I’ll have an officer with you in a second.” Savannah nodded “Thank you ma’am.” and guided Ella over to a seat. Officer Howell walked over five minutes later, “Hi ma’ams if you could follow me to a conference room we can get your report filed. My name is officer Anthony Howell, and I’ll be taking your report.” The three went into a room where the officer closed the blinds and shut the door, allowing them privacy. Alright, so what’s your full name miss?” “Uh, Ella-Ella Rose Hotchner.” “Alright, Ms. Hotchner, could you please outline who you are filing for a restraining order against and why for the report, as well if you are filing a criminal case against him?” Ella nodded “Ella please, and um, my boyfriend, Alex Marcus, he goes to Georgetown with me, he-he hits me, um he abuses me.” Officer Howell nodded gently, “Would you like to press charges against him?” “Ye-yeah, I want to, I need to, I need to get him away from him.” Howell nodded “That’s good miss, how long have the two of you been dating exactly?” “Just about 8 months.” “Alright, and can you tell me when the most recent time he hit you was?” “This morning, I came back from a doctor’s appointment for X-rays for some stuff that happened on Friday but I hadn’t told him I was leaving my apartment so he was pissed. He had beat me on Friday because he had a long day at work and then dinner wasn’t done properly and I had forgotten to dust the mantle, so I had just made everything worse, and he came after me on Friday. He beat me and slammed me against the wall and kicked me until my head was pounding from bouncing off this so much and then as he was about to leave me on the floor he stepped onto my ankle as though the rug had just bunched up and he didn’t notice. He went out of town for work that night so I was able to go to this family team barbeque thing we do every other weekend or so and Savannah is a doctor so I had her look at things and she told me she wanted to get X-rays this morning back at the hospital since I begged her not to do it Saturday so no one else would find out. When I got back to my apartment this morning he had gotten back from work and was not happy at all so he beat me for about an hour I think it was before he stormed out telling me to clean up the mess and broken stuff and that he’d be back tomorrow morning.” Officer Howell nodded sympathetically, “Alright miss-Ella, I think that’s good enough for now, I’ll be working with you throughout this case, but from what I’ve heard, I have no reason not to give you at least a temporary restraining order until a court date and you can get in front of a judge. A copy will be given to you, and then mailed to your boyfriend's address as well.” Ella nodded before saying “Well I suppose he’d be my ex-boyfriend now.” The officer queried a smile and nodded saying “I suppose so,” as he started to fill out some forms. 

After about 5 minutes Officer Howell slipped out of the room and was back in 2 minutes saying “Here’s your copy of the official report, and temporary restraining order, Ms.-Ella. If you don’t mind my asking though, it seems like you went from protecting your boyfriend to the extreme just two days ago to filing charges against him, can I ask what changed your mind?” Ella nodded with a slight smile, “Simple, Savannah, she prodded, gently, using facts and my x-rays that I couldn’t refute, helping me to see the excuses I’d been making for him, and that if her really loved me he wouldn’t do this to me, and I shouldn’t be ashamed that this happened to me and it’s not my fault.” Officer Howell smiled at her, “That’s really good, you’re a very strong woman. I will get your report bounced up to the detectives and investigative unit and they will take over a lot of it, but here is my card, and I will be with you through the whole process.” Ella sent him a grateful smile “Thank you, sir, I-you made this so much easier than I thought it would be, thank you.” Officer Howell nodded “Just doing my job miss, and well I have a particular hatred for a man who hits a woman. It happened to my sister but she was scared to tell me because I’m a cop and my dad was one too, and ever since then I try to take as many of those cases as I can because I understand how hard it can be to report that.” Ella’s smile turned slightly shy and said: “I understand that Sav actually helped me realize that’s part of why I was hiding it so strongly, both my parents and my brother are FBI, almost all my aunts and uncles are LEOs, and I have a lot of brothers, not by blood, but we grew up together, and they’re all FBI too, so it was hard for me to acknowledge something could happen to me, and that I couldn’t have stopped it by myself.” Officer Howell nodded gently, “I see, but you should remember, no matter who your family is, who you become, it doesn’t give  _ anyone _ , man or woman, the right to hurt you, physically, or emotionally, okay?” Ella nodded and hesitantly asked, “Can I-Would it-Am I allowed to give you a hug?” Officer Howell nodded, and quickly set his papers down, opening his arms slightly but not reaching for her knowing it would scare her, and letting her wrap her arms around him first.” She pulled back after only a second or two, but with a smile on her face, “Thank you, for just, being you I guess.” Officer Howell nodded and pulled a business card out “You clearly have no shortage of people to protect you I’m sure, but if you ever want to talk, or if you need updates on your case, let me know, okay?” Ella nodded taking it, ”Thank you.” “My pleasure.” The three walked to the door and Savannah and Ella went back towards the receptionist’s desk, to grab their Driver’s Licenses from the sign-in bin, and heading back out to the car.

As they exited, neither one realized Ella’s key chain with her Student ID for Georgetown on it had fallen in front of the desk, Ella didn’t notice, as Savannah let them in the apartment with her emergency key, and Ella didn’t leave the house for the rest of Monday afternoon, or Tuesday. Nothing happened for the rest of the day, and though Savannah didn’t want to leave Ella alone both because of Alex and her concussion, she convinced her too, so both went home, Ella, to put some ice back on her injuries, and Savannah, back to the house she shared with Derek. Arriving back home before Derek she dropped onto the couch and just cried for nearly and hour. For how long her niece, the girl she viewed as nearly her own daughter, had been stuck for so long and no one realized it, how long had she been hiding injuries, how many injuries had she treated for Ella over the course of the last 8 months and not realized anything? And Ella had told her she still didn’t want any of the team or the family to know. What would happen when Alex came the next morning, would she be okay? She sat on the couch with her head in her hands for a long time before slowly stopping the cries and cleaning off her face, right as the door opened and Derek got home. She tried to paste a smile on her face, and act like she was comfortably relaxing, watching TV, not wanting to try and lie her way out of this with a profiler… epic fail. Derek set his stuff on the bench near the door and came into the living room sitting down next to her, pulling her back into his comforting back to rub her shoulders and leaning over to give her a kiss. “Hey baby, how was work today?” “It was… work, you know?” Derek nodded “Why were you crying, is everything okay?” “I’m not crying.” Savannah protested quickly. Derek looked down at where her head was resting in his lap now, and said: “I realize that but your eyes look like you stopped crying maybe five minutes before I got home, so what’s up, bad patient.” Savannah sighed and decided on a partial truth, “I had a patient in a bad situation and she finally let me help her get out of it, but she won’t tell any of her family, and she made me promise not to tell anyone, but she said her boyfriend’s coming over tomorrow and that she would break up with him right away, but I’m just worried.” Derek nodded and bent down gently pecking her forehead, “It’s a good thing you’re doing to help her, you really care about her then, more than as just a patient?” Savannah nodded “I’ve known her since she was born, she’s almost like a daughter to me, we talk about everything in her life pretty much, so that she hid this from me for so long, but still doesn’t want anyone else to know, it’s hard, but we’ll get through it.” Derek smiled “Why haven’t I met this wonderful woman who’s so important to you?” Savannah winced slightly “You uh, you have, you were specifically one of the people she didn’t want me to tell, so I’m splitting hairs on the literalness of her words.” Derek laughed slightly “Of course, I love you so much Sav.” “I love you too, Der.”

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Alex never showed up Tuesday morning making Ella wonder what happened but grateful he wasn’t there anyway. Ella called to tell Savannah who sounded relieved and made her promise to call if something happened. Wednesday morning rolled around Ella was eating breakfast at her counter when Alex arrived. He pulled her into a forceful kiss before pushing the bull of cereal away from her “What are you doing? You know you need to be eating less, you’re so fat, woman! You know that.” Ella turned towards him and stood up making eye contact for the first time since she could remember, “Alex, I-I don’t think is working out anymore, I think we’re meant for different people, I still care about you, but if I look for forever, I don’t see us working out that long.” Alex's eyes hardened and darkened “Really, you think that’s how this works, what, you go whore yourself out to some other guy from your brother’s team, think you're better than you actually are now? Well, that’s not happening. You’re not leaving me!” He spat before shoving her to the ground and beating her until blood was pouring from her nose, he wrenched her arm behind her and repeatedly slammed her against the wall and cabinets, until he heard her arm crack. She was only grateful that he hadn’t touched her boot yet, knowing it was still nowhere near healed. He beat her for over an hour, in one of the worst ones he’d ever doled out to her, before slamming her into a cabinet one last time before his phone rang and he cursed up a storm before answering, “Alex Marcus, how may I help you?” He talked back and forth for a moment before Alex slammed the phone shut and stomped over to her, kicking her foot before saying, “You lucky bitch, the boss wants me to go out and do a major construction consult in New York. I’ll be gone for two days but I don’t think you need to go anywhere. He stomped over to his bag and pulled out some zip ties, quickly attaching her wrist to the kitchen cabinet handle, before slapping her one last time and storming out of the apartment.

Ella sagged against the cabinet, very dizzy, but knowing she needed to call someone, she pushed herself up to her feet, as far as she could, before realizing her purse was sitting on the counter, she had been ready to leave in a hurry if Alex had shown up, she just hadn’t been aware enough when he showed up. She was just barely able to reach the strap and tugged it to her but it fell to the floor. She let her aching body drop back down to the floor and reached for it again, pulling it to her along the floor, and pulling her phone out, trying to figure out who to call, when Officer Howell’s card slipped out with it, and she realized she could call him. She slowly punched the numbers in, taking an extra second since she couldn’t use her right hand.

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Meanwhile, at the precinct, Detective Josh Brookers, and Captain Will LaMontagne, were getting the FBI’s lead profiling team set up in the main conference room, having called them in that morning after 20-year-old brunette females were being dumped in nearby allies, the first was found Monday morning, followed by another one early Tuesday morning, and yet another one dropping at 6 am that morning. Will had been quick to tell his detective to call the FBI in, and wondering in the back of his mind which team his wife was going to send. Then he snorted to himself knowing the only real question was if she decided she needed to come on this one to review the media liaison on Reid’s team. He had been proven correct when Reid’s team showed up. Before the team had left the BAU, while Josie Gomez had been presenting the case with Garcia and Reid, The whole team had snickered in unsurprise when JJ showed up in the conference room and said: “Spence, Josie, I’m coming on this one to erm, observe your work.” The team barely held back snickers, and as only the team was in there and they were all practically family, Henry laughed, “You mean just want to see dad, you don’t need to make up fake excuses.” JJ shot him a frowning glare, “I mean, it is a thing, I do have to review all of my liaisons every few months.” Kai sent her an amused look and said: “Except you did your last observation a month and a half ago.” JJ walked around the table and said “Oh shush you,” gently booping the back of his head making the team laugh. Reid spoke up seriously though you could tell he was slightly amused, as he had become significantly better versed in social interactions throughout the course of his time as an agent and then as unit chief, “As much as I hate to break up this entertaining coffee klatch, there is a reason Detective Brookers and Will called us in, and it wasn’t for a little party. 

The team nodded and turned back to the board with the case files right as the door opened again and Reid sighed as the door opened and Derek walked in casually, “I heard you had a local case with the 5th precinct, I was thinking I might observe this case, you know, a necessary duty of being section chief…” The team finally let their laughs out, while Hank just rolled his eyes at his father before saying “Yeah, it was amusing when Aunt JJ tried to use that excuse not 3 minutes ago, your punch line was stolen  _ Section Chief Morgan _ .” Derek shot his son a glare, before looking up and noticing JJ was indeed leaning against the back wall watching everything with a smile on her face. Quick to reply Derek said, “Well we all know she’s just missing her husband, I’m actually going to work.” Reid was the one to raise his eyebrows now shooting Derek a look and saying “No, you just want to gloat that you won the bet you made with him that the Cubs would win on Saturday at Dave’s.” Derek had the decency to look embarrassed for all of 3 seconds before shrugging and saying “He shouldn’t bet against my Cubs,” and flopping onto an empty seat. The whole team laughed as everyone knew Derek and Will got along perfectly, they were very close, so the two would nag at the other about when their hometown’s sports teams lost, and the Cubs hadn’t been playing great that year, giving Will all kinds of ammo, but Will also rarely bet, and when he did, he won against everyone other than Spencer, so for Derek to win a bet, was slightly noteworthy.

Reid shook his head and sarcastically asked Derek, “Can I get back to my case now?” Derek laughed and nodded “Go ahead, pretty boy.” Spencer gritted out “I am not that young anymore.” Derek laughed again and said, “But you always will be pretty boy, go ahead, case remember?” Reid shot him a glare before finishing up the case presentation. 

Needless to say, Will had been moderately amused when not only had Reid’s team showed up, but Derek and JJ had been with them. Will had made the introductions to his detective, “Brookers, this is Unit Chief Dr. Spencer Reid, Section Chief Derek Morgan, Media Chief Jennifer Jereau-LaMontagne, and SSAs Jack Hotchner, Kai Struthers, Hank Morgan, and Henry LaMontagne. Guys this is the lead detective Josh Brookers.” Brookers looked curiously at his Captain “You know this team Cap? Wait…. LaMontagne?” He gestured to Henry and JJ. The team barely held back snickers at his confusion before Will took pity on the man and said “My wife and son, Josh.” “Ohhh, that’s how you knew who to call in this fast?” Will nodded “Yes well, I would hope I know my wife’s work number after this long.” Brookers nodded and said, “Okay then….” And led the team to the conference room outlining what they had so far, which wasn’t much, as they got to the room Brookers said: “A few detectives are working on this because of how fast bodies are dropping, would you like to talk to the officer who found any of the bodies?” Reid nodded taking over “Yes please detective, the one who found the first body should be adequate right now.” Josh leaned into the hallway to yell “Howell, the FBI needs to talk to you!” and Will snorted, well used to this detective’s antics as they were good friends off of work too, having been partners for a while before Josh went into the detectives when Will got his first promotion. Will tapped his detective “Y’r phone works just as well as shoutin’ ‘cross de station.” Josh shrugged “This is faster.” Will rolled his eyes and started to leave the room giving JJ a quick kiss and ruffling Henry’s hair before saying “Y'all know where my office is, let me know if ya need anything but I trust Josh’ll help you,” and walking out of the conference room. 

Officer Anthony Howell entered the room and froze when every set of eyes turned to him. Reid spoke, “I’m Unit Chief Dr. Spencer Reid, I take it you’re Officer Howell?” Howell nodded and Reid said, “And you found the first body Monday morning?” The officer nodded and Reid said, “If you’re available right now, I’d like you to sit with two of my agents and describe everything you saw, so we can start piecing together details.” “Of course, I normally work patrol first half of shift and station second half but today I’m doing the station all day because Captain assumed you would need to talk to me.” Reid nodded “Perfect, Josie and Kai, interview, then Josie figure out what the public knows and what we need to say and Kai start helping Garcia dig into the victims’ lives. Jack and Henry, first crime scene then head to the third, detective, if you’d like to go with them to point out anything important, feel free, Hank, you and I are going to the 2nd crime scene and then back here to join Kai victimology and get started on a geographic profile.” Receiving nods and movement from everyone, Reid started to grab his bag to head to a car before realizing JJ and Derek were there and waving a hand in their direction and saying “You two go wherever you want, I’m not in charge of you.” Before anyone could even get out of the conference room Officer Howell’s phone rang, and he answered it “Howell” They couldn’t hear the other side but whatever was said had his face paling “Okay, listen to me, I’ll be right there, is he still in the house?...... Okay, don’t try and move…. I’ll have an arrest warrant started and in front of a judge before the end of the day, I’ll be there in 15 minutes.” He slammed his phone shut and quickly spoke “I have a victim who pressed charges against her boyfriend Monday afternoon, and I gave her my card in case something happened but she didn’t want to just call 911 because she was adamant not to make a big deal out of it, he attacked her again and tied her to her kitchen cabinet, I need to go so I’ll need to delay that interview, Agent.” Reid nodded and waved to the door, “Go, go, we can do the interview later.” The officer nodded gratefully and rushed out the door leaving the agents without a second thought. 

Derek was the first one to speak and he said: “That is one of those crimes that purely disgusts me, how can you beat a woman and think it’s okay?” The team nodded their agreement and Jack said: “I don’t know what I’d do if someone ever did that to Ella but I’m pretty sure I’d need an alibi.” Henry snorted and said “You’re not the only one,” and the rest of the team nodded their agreement before Derek added, “And you’d have about 15 potential ones.” The team snickered at that until Reid said: “Alright, Jack, Henry, you two head out, Kai, you go with Hank now, I’ll start the geographic profile off these three and get in touch with Pen, Josie, can you figure out what the press knows?” Josie nodded and left the room to talk to Will and the other detectives and figure out what’s been published so far.

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Officer Howell raced to the address Ella gave him, easily entering the unlocked door and gasping when he saw what she looked like, and he had thought she was beaten up on Monday afternoon. He quickly pulled out his knife and sliced the zip-tie cuffs before saying “I think I should call an ambulance.” “No, please, I’ll go see Savannah but I don’t want more people knowing.” “Who’s Savannah?” “The woman who came with me Monday, she’s my kinda-Aunt and also my doctor.” Howell nodded and gently helped her to her feet before guiding her down to his car and into the front seat. He quickly went to the hospital Ella instructed him to while she called her Aunt in the car. “Hey, Savannah… Alex, he-he came back this morning and I tried to-to break up with him and I-I’m hurt… I called Officer Howell, he’s bringing me t-to you… okay, bye.” She looked to Howell “She’ll wait for us at the entrance, she was just going on her morning break.” They pulled up to the hospital quickly and Savannah gave him her thanks before taking Ella from him and over to where her office area was, knowing she would never go for the ER, there were too many other doctors. Savannah was quick to start an exam, using a portable X-ray in the room rather than going to the X-ray room itself, and in about 15 minutes she was done and rolled her chair over to the bed before sitting down. “I’m so sorry this happened to you El.” Ella nodded and said, “My arm’s broken right, I heard a crack.” Savannah nodded, “We’ll cast it but no surgery, it was a clean break, it just needs to head back together, you’re up to two cracked ribs and a definite concussion, but good news is from the new x-ray, I’m thinking some of the damage looked worse than it was, I’m thinking it was one break that looked worse because of the angle of the x-ray, so the good news is you definitely won’t need surgery there, but the boot is still a necessity for a few weeks, but you won’t be able to use crutches with your arm like that, so I’m going to let you walk in the boot, but as little mobility as possible, make everyone get stuff for you little princess, and if you need to go very far, you’re going to hate me, but... wheelchair.” Ella shook her head “No, nope, absolutely not, I will not, not a chance, use a wheelchair.” Savannah shook her head “I knew you’d say that Miss. Independent, but here’s the other thing you’re going to hate, I can’t let you go home alone. You have a serious concussion someone needs to wake you up every two hours, you can’t just use an alarm because the alarm won’t know if you don’t get up.” Ella shook her head “No you can’t tell anyone, and someone would find out.” “Ella, you’ve already filed a police report, I’d be surprised if Penelope won’t find out the second it processes, and you know she’s going to ask someone about it when she finds out, why can’t anybody know?” “Because I shouldn’t have let that happen to me, I’ve spent literally all my life surrounded by federal agents.” “Ella, this wasn’t your fault, have you thought about maybe talking to someone?” “Nope, not doing that either.” Savannah sighed “Either you need to choose someone to stay with, or I will drag you home with me.” 

Ella knew she wasn’t going to get anywhere so she finally said “Fine, call mom.” Savannah nodded approvingly and pulled out her phone and put it on speaker so Ella could hear. “Savannah? What’s wrong?” “Ella has a concussion and I can’t let her spend the night alone, she needs someone to check on her, so assuming you or Aaron are going to be home…” Emily interrupted her “Yeah of course, what happened?” Savannah sighed but said “That’s for her to tell you, it’s not for me to share, but you should know she’s hurt beyond that, she has a broken arm and broken ankle, as well as 2 cracked ribs, so she can’t really move about much either. Emily’s gasp could be heard over the phone “Good god, what the hell? Are you with her right now?” “Yes, I was going to set her up in my office until I can leave this afternoon and then bring her to your house.” “No, no, it’s fine, I can take off early, I’ll meet you at the hospital, I think the section chief would let me take off… if he was even here.” “Where is he?” “Reid got a local case at Will’s precinct so both Derek and JJ tagged along, to you know, observe and review.” Savannah snorted “Of course, I’m sure they chose just this case for that.” Emily laughed “I know right, Aaron came looking for Derek because I’m sure he screwed something or another up on some file and couldn’t find anyone. He was so amused.” Savannah laughed “I’m sure, you know I feel like my husband could eliminate at least a third of your husband’s stress by writing legibly on his paperwork.” Emily laughed “He’s never been able too, I can’t even count the number of times Aaron would come grumpily stomping past my desk to plop a file back on Morgan’s desk and say he couldn’t read a page or that he missed a page. In theory, you should have the bad handwriting of the two of you because you’re the doctor but yours isn’t even that bad.” Savannah smiled “I try, you know, discount the stereotype thing.” Emily chuckled and said, "Alright, I’m in my car, I should be at the hospital in like 15 minutes.” Savannah nodded and said, “Alright Em, see you then.”

Savannah hung up the phone and Ella finally spoke again, but it was only to groan, “Why oh why did I let you tell her, she’s going to go all overprotective now.” Savannah rubbed her back and said, “It’s because she cares, and would you rather I have called your brother?” Ella sighed “No.” 

Emily arrived 15 minutes later and was a whirlwind into Savannah’s office, where the two had moved to, to wait. She took one look at her daughter before demanding “What happened?” Savannah said nothing so she turned to her daughter who just looked down before mumbling “Just stuff, life, I really don’t want to talk about it though, please, I can’t, not yet.” Emily sighed but agreed, looking to Savannah, “Anything I need to know?” Savannah nodded, “So she has a broken bone in her foot, a broken bone in her arm, 2 cracked ribs, and a definite concussion, you know the drill there, and this…” She handed Emily a piece of paper “is a prescription for painkillers because she can’t use her crutches anymore with her ribs and arm like this, and she’s unsurprisingly refusing a wheelchair, meaning she’s walking more than I’d like, which means she’ll be in a lot of pain. Call me if you need anything, of course.” Emily nodded, “Thanks Savannah.” With that, Emily, gently helped Ella up and guided her out to the car. Managing surprising restraint, she didn’t start pestering her daughter with questions, only asking “we need to go by your apartment first, or can we go straight home?” “My apartment, I don’t have my license, phone, anything.” Emily nodded and headed to her daughter’s apartment, pulling into one of the visitor spots before speaking again when her daughter went to get out ahead of her, “What are you doing?” “...Getting out of the car so I can go get stuff from my apartment…?” “And trying to leave me behind?” “...Yeah, kinda?” “You can barely walk more than 10 steps on your own without pausing in pain, why would I not come with you?” Ella didn’t have an answer besides not wanting anyone to see her apartment, so Emily came with her and unlocked the door for her. Emily pushed open the door, easily followed by Ella after she stepped to the side. Ella was momentarily confused about the lack of blood and glass all over, but noticing her keychain on the island with a note, walked over to it and scanned it quickly. A slight smile crossed her face as she grabbed her keychain and shoved it in her pockets, before heading back to her bedroom and grabbing a duffel bag to quickly pack some clothes up, along with her computer, phone, and charge cords. 

Once Ella had disappeared down the hallway, Emily looked around for any clues as to what happened to her daughter, before seeing her daughter had left the paper she’d smiled at on the counter earlier, and deciding it might give her a clue as to what was happening.

_ Ella- _

_ After I took you to the hospital I came back and cleaned up a little, I figured you’d rather not have to clean the blood and glass up, I’d been meaning to get it back to you but you dropped your keys in the station on Monday, so here you go. I’ll get the restraining order and arrest warrant for your boyfriend, my bad, ex-boyfriend :), in front of a judge by tonight, tomorrow at the latest. I hope you feel better, give me a call or text to let me know you’re okay when you have a moment. Also, I’m pretty sure I met the brother you mentioned on Monday, my captain called in the FBI for a case we’re working, and his name was Agent Hotchner. In case no one’s ever told you, you two look really similar ;). _

_ -Officer HowellI _

Emily smiled slightly as she read the last part, agreeing that her two kids did look extraordinarily similar, before frowning as she thought about the rest of the note. Why had Ella been at a police station on Monday? Who was she pressing charges against? But she knew she couldn’t ask because then Ella would get mad at her for snooping.

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Emily arrived back at her house with Ella about 45 minutes later, and she quickly guided her bruised up, very injured looking daughter over to her couch before brushing her hair out of her eyes before saying “Do you need anything love-bug? Are you in pain? Do you want some ice? Some painkillers?” Ella closed her eyes and shrugged slightly wincing as the motion hurt her ribs, “Just some painkillers for now, I’m tired, I think I’ll try and nap.” Emily nodded and retrieved the painkillers they had filled the prescription for on the way home. She sat on the edge of the coffee table gently running her hand through her daughter’s hair before gently questioning, in the voice she used when she would talk with a victim of a horrible crime, and didn’t that make her stomach hurt to think about her daughter as a victim of something, no matter how obvious the proof was sitting in front of her. Her daughter’s face was bruised, and as she thought of what Savannah had listed off, she could only imagine the bruising and pain she couldn’t see. “Who did this to you baby? What happened?” Ella shook her head slightly, “Please no mom, not right now. Savannah knows I’m okay now though.” Emily pressed just slightly “Are you going to press charges against whoever did this at least? Did you report it?” Ella wasn’t sure if it was pain, exhaustion, or the fear from the morning catching up to her but her mom’s prodding made her snap slightly, breaking her perfectly collected composure that she maintained nearly as well as her mother, much to her dismay as she wished her daughter hadn’t inherited that skill to quite an extent, but when her mom kept asking annoying questions instead of just comforting her and gently running her hand down her hair, she exploded slightly saying “I said just leave it alone! I’ll tell you eventually just give me time! You know maybe when I don’t have a whole list of broken bones?! Could you stop being an FBI agent for one minute and use your damn profiling skills to see that maybe your daughter just wants someone to comfort her and hug her and rub her back and just be a mom for a minute?!” 

Emily cringed slightly as she realized the validity of her daughter’s statements, she was distancing herself from the pain of seeing her daughter like that and placing her calm agent masks perfectly in place. She stood up just enough to turn towards the couch, gently adjusting Ella’s body and lifting her head from where it was laying on the sofa before sitting down and laying her daughter back down onto her lap.

She ran her fingers through her daughter’s hair again soothingly, without saying anything for a moment as her hand moved down her side, gently comforting while being careful of her hurt ribs. She finally said “I’m sorry baby, you’re right, I was trying to separate myself from the situation instead of being your mom even though it was obvious that’s who you needed at the moment. I’ll be here for you, whatever you need, however I can help.” Ella sighed in her mother’s lap, “Sorry mom, I didn’t mean that I just, I think everything that’s been happening is slamming into me all at once and my nerves are fried.” “It’s okay, you just need someone to hold you and tell you everything’s going to be okay and I understand that, I can’t tell you the cases that dad had to hold me after and remind me that we do the job to get rid of the monsters, or when your brother told us he got into the academy and I cried for hours that night.” “You cried?” Emily shook her head at the memory before saying “This life I chose, I wouldn’t change it for anything, even if you gave me a do over card, you throw yourself into your job, into the line of fire more times than I count, and I don’t regret one case, but to watch your son, your child, go into that life, it’s gut-wrenching, terrifying.” A slight smirk crossed Ella’s face despite everything that had happened and she said: “So would now be a bad time to say I want to go to the academy too?” Emily groaned “Really El? You know I’ll always support you but…” Ella laughed “I’m just kidding, I’m good in pre-Law thank you very much.” Emily sighed but shot a slight glare down at her daughter, “Really, you just want to give me a heart attack?” Ella laughed but quickly regretted it making Emily quick to apologize and playfully scold, “Hey! No laughing with broken ribs missy. I’m just kidding, sorry babe.” Ella shook her head slightly, “It’s fine.”

The two relaxed on the couch for a while until Emily was sure her daughter was asleep when she said, “Can you hand me my water please mom?” Emily went to reach for it before realizing it was empty and gently scooting out from under her daughter before going to refill it in the kitchen. She came back and held the straw for her daughter before setting it back on the side table.

“Do you want to watch TV or go to your room and take a nap?” Ella tilted her head indifferently, remembering to not shrug before saying “I’ll just lay here.” Emily smiled gently “Okay, do you need anything or can I work on cases for a bit?” “I’m good, I’ve got the remote, got some water, we’re all good.” Emily nodded and retrieved case files from her bag that she brought home before settling in an armchair near the sofa. Ella rolled her eyes at her mother’s hovering but tugged her phone out of her bottom pocket where it was digging into her hip before settling on the sofa to watch some TV. It was about 4:30 and she’d been watching tv for nearly two hours when she started fidgeting on the sofa. Her mother’s ever-watchful gaze locked onto her “Are you okay?” Ella just mumbled, “My ribs aren’t very comfortable in this spot anymore, I was trying to shift a little.” Emily set her files aside and moved back to the sofa, propping her daughter’s head on her lap and wrapping an arm around her waist to take some pressure off her ribs, Emily knowing first hand just how bad cracked ribs hurt. Ella sighed in relief, and muttered a grateful “Thanks, mom.” Emily just rubbed her back and said “Why don’t you sleep a bit? I got you, promise.” Ella nodded, secure, safe in her childhood home with her mom, an honestly kick-ass FBI agent, that she was proud of no matter what she said, wrapped around her, and slipped into a light sleep on her mom’s lap.

Aaron got home just over an hour earlier, Emily having texted him that something was wrong with his daughter, there was no chance he was staying late, he’d done that too much when his kids needed him growing up, he wasn’t about to miss a second if his daughter needed him now. He was fully aware of his rushed, and on time, exit had stirred up through the BAU family as he rushed out at 5:30 on the dot, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop and explain. He flew through the door at 5:52 seeking out his wife and daughter. He entered the living room but before he could get one word out his wife was shushing him “Let her sleep, she’s had a long day and only got to sleep an hour ago, after obviously fighting it for 2 full hours trying to watch tv, so help me god if you wake her up.” Aaron raised his hands defensively but sank down heavily into the armchair Emily had been in earlier before saying “She-She looks…” Emily nodded understanding what he couldn’t put into words before whispering in response, “Like a victim we’ve seen in a case file, believe me, I thought the same thing, and I can only imagine what’s under her clothes and we can’t see.” Aaron rubbed a hand down his face and sighed “Do you know what happened?” Emily sighed this time and shook her head “I can only imagine. She just kept saying ‘Not now, mom.’ and promptly end that conversation.” 

Aaron sighed and went to speak again but stopped short as Ella started whimpering in Emily’s lap and twitching, rolling slightly on the couch. Emily tried to soothe her before she woke up from this nightmare, as well as keep her in place so she didn’t fall off the sofa. They both took notice when her wordless mumbles and cries turned into real words. “No please don’t, I’ll do better I promise.” “No, no Alex please.” Emily and Aaron exchanged glances though Emily continued trying to calm her daughter. Aaron whispered, “Please don’t tell me her boyfriend did this.” He spat the word boyfriend like it was poison in his mouth. Emily sagged back in the couch “I really don’t know but God it sure as hell sounds like it.” Aaron said nothing just rubbed fiercely at his face trying to stave off the internal fear before he finally said: “What do we know about this Alex.” Emily shook her head sadly “Practically nothing, She told me about him 7 months ago so I’d guess they’ve been dating at least 8, but I’ve neve met him yet, don’t even know his last name.” Aaron grumbled out “I was talking with some of the guys the last time we were over at Dave and Erin’s, something seemed off with her but no one knew what, how the hell as she dated someone for 8 months and not one of us have met him?” Emily just replied, “She practically grew up in the FBI, profilers know less, she knows how to hide things, hell she knows how to profile better than half the recruits that apply to the BAU even if she never went to the academy. She convinced us nothing was wrong, he just didn’t like law enforcement so he didn’t want to meet us.” Aaron shook his head “I couldn’t possibly imagine why he didn’t want to meet us. If I find out he was the one to do this… dammit, he’s gonna have a real reason not to like the FBI.” Emily sighed but said nothing, knowing she really didn’t disagree with her husband, as her daughter started to settle down from the nightmare, but all of a sudden, she jolted and jumped awake. Emily was quick to try and calm her “Shh, it’s okay Ella, you’re safe, you’re safe, just lay down, it’s okay.” Ella settled on her mother’s lap before her eyes focused on the room and she gasped “Oh! Hi Dad! You’re home?! What time is it?” Emily pet her daughter’s hair “Just after 5:30 baby girl.” Ella nodded and settled back on her mother’s lap.

She remained that way for only about a minute before she fixed a look on her dad “Wait… Why are you home so early, dad?” Aaron smiled at his daughter “Your mom texted me when she left to get you from Savannah’s office saying she was leaving and you were hurt, of course I left work as soon as I could to come check on you myself.” Ella smiled “Aww, you’re so cute, you were worried.” Aaron glared and indignantly said “I am not cute missy.” before calming his voice and saying “Of course I was worried, you’re hurt El.” Ella smiled and relaxed back onto her mother’s lap. Aaron was the once to quietly say “Sounded like one hell of a nightmare El, you want to talk about it?” Ella shook her head “Not really.” “It might help, was it about how you got hurt?” Ella nodded slightly and Aaron decided to see if he could get anywhere “Will you tell us what happened? Please babe? We just want to help our Princess.” Ella sighed and said nothing for nearly 5 minutes, to where both Aaron and Emily thought she wasn’t going to say anything but then she mumbled: “Alex happened.”

Emily cringed, despite having pretty much already known that, it was still hard to hear. Emily brushed her hair in a soothing way before saying “Alex your boyfriend?” Ella nodded so Emily asked, “Was this the first time he hurt you?” “It wasn’t usually this bad but no.” Emily sighed internally “Why did you never say anything babe?” “It was never that bad, I didn’t think it was a big deal, you know, like so what, he always said he loved me so if he got mad when I messed up it wasn’t a big deal.” Both parents felt their guts turn at her easy dismissal of what happened to her, and the excuses easily rolling off her. Aaron spoke up next, “Ella, if someone would hit you or ever hurt you intentionally, they DO NOT deserve you, there is no reason that would make it acceptable to hurt you like this, no matter how bad it is, it is always a problem, and you shouldn’t put up with it.” Ella sighed and looked at the floor, “I know, I mean, I get that… now at least. Savannah talked to me about it, she convinced me to break up with him, which is why all this happened this morning.” “You broke up with him this morning?” “Well… attempted to, but he kind of flipped and then handcuffed me to my kitchen cabinet so I could leave, but I was able to reach my phone so I called someone.” Aaron hesitantly asked, “Do you-were you thinking about pressing charges, or at least filing a restraining order?” Ella nodded “Savannah went with me, she was the one to convince me to. After this morning and my medical records and everything, Officer Howell said he’d try to get both the restraining order and arrest warrant in front of a judge by tonight.” Aaron nodded “Okay, was it at Will’s station?” Ella nodded “Yeah but he doesn’t know, they had a dead body that morning that I think he was wrapped up in, funny enough the officer who took my statement was apparently involved in that case too because I called him this morning when I was trapped and he took me to see Savannah but apparently I had dropped my keys at the station when I was there on Monday so he let himself back in my apartment and cleaned some stuff up after he took pictures for the case so that I wouldn’t have to deal with it and left my keys on the counter for me.” Aaron smiled slightly at her little story before Ella looked around for her phone before grabbing it, getting confused looks from her parents so she explained “he asked me to text him and tell him I was okay once I left the doctor and I completely forgot to sooo… one sec please.” Aaron just shook his head but allowed her to type out the message while Emily may or may not have snooped over her shoulder since she was still laying on her lap.

“Hi, Sorry I forgot to text you earlier. I’m home, Savannah faxed over the updated files and photos I believe. I decided to tell my parents so I’m staying with them because of my concussion, so I’m safe and not at my apartment. Thanks for helping me this morning. Ella.”

Emily smirked slightly, not convinced her daughter would remain single for long despite everything that happened, with the attention of this police officer, and a slight hint that a specific BAU member had an interest in her as well. She got a quick text back which Emily may have also read, hey she’s worried about her daughter, you can’t fault her for that.

“Hi, yeah she did, I’ve put together enough in your case file that I should be able to get a restraining order approved. I couldn’t get in front of a judge tonight but I will at 9 tomorrow morning. I’m working on putting everything together for an arrest warrant as well right now. I’ll let you know about any new updates.” Ella smiled and set her phone down before looking back to her father who was smirking at her. “What?” Aaron shrugged “Nothing, just happy to see you smile.” Ella sent him a look, “I have absolutely no interest in dating  _ Officer _ Howell, his sister was involved in a similar situation so he’s just very invested in these kinds of cases.” Aaron nodded and pulled the smirk off his face, though he was still thinking he would be watching to see what happened.

The three relaxed in the living room for about an hour before there was a knock on the door.

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**One hour earlier in the police station… 5:45 pm”

Officer Howell had given his statement to the FBI team as soon as he got back from helping Ella, before pushing that case aside in his mind and getting to work in the station. He took a couple of reports and went out on two calls that patrol didn’t have time for, before settling back down at his desk to work on Ella’s case file so he could get in front of a judge the next morning. His phone dinged and he smiled slightly and quickly typed out a response, happy that she was safe and wasn’t going to be at her apartment alone with all those injuries. He started running Alex Marcus’ name through the DCPD and warrant databases for last known locations and such, but when he searched nationwide databases he gasped and did a double-take. He re-read everything he got hits on with this man, before realizing this was more than a simple case of domestic abuse. He printed off a couple of files and folded up the file, and rushed to the Captain’s office. He knew the man was busy with the FBI here for the murder case but this was pretty bad and he wasn’t sure where to go next. He knocked shortly on the imposing door of Captain Will LaMontagne’s office. “Come in.”

He stepped through the door and shut it before looking up. Will showed surprise having assumed it was on the BAU team but simply asked: “What can I do for you Officer Howell?” Officer Anthony Howell gulped under the stare of his Captain before saying “Sir, on Monday I took a report from a woman escaping a domestic abuse situation. I sent a copy up to the detectives, as well as beginning my own investigation, but with the murders that got sidetracked. This morning I got a call from the woman, having given her my business card. She tried to break up with her boyfriend but he attacked her and handcuffed her to her kitchen cabinet. I went to her apartment where the door was unlocked and released her before getting her to the hospital for medical attention. Tonight I sat down to work on putting together a case file to present to Judge Morrow tomorrow morning for the restraining order and to get an arrest warrant out.” Howell took a breath and Will thought about what his officer was saying, but could not see the reason for this case being brought to his attention yet so he let his officer continue. “When I went to run the man’s name through the various databases for an LKA and such, I got a lot of hits. The man, Alex Marcus, has restraining orders and an arrest warrant in a variety of different states for nearly identical charges. The first one was in Washington state, followed by Nevada, then Texas, and finally Illinois. The one in Washington is 5 years old, and other than these warrants, he has no record, not one parking ticket. I briefly skimmed through the reports attached to his name from the other states, and it’s almost exactly the same story. He wooed the woman, was the perfect gentleman for a few months before getting more and more abusive. When the woman finally went to the police or tried to break up with him, he attacks them to within an inch of their life and handcuffs them with zip ties to something in their house, a cabinet door, bed post, etc. I wasn’t sure if I should contact the other police departments or simply work this like nothing changed, Sir.” Will ran his hand over his face, disgusted by the filth of humanity, absolutely baffled how someone could do this to their girlfriend before saying, “That’s the case file in your hands I presume?” Howell nodded so Will held a hand out, “Let me flip through it myself for a moment, if everything is as you say, I may have one of the agents here for the murder case look at it and see what they suggest.”

Howell handed the file over with all the information he had found and flipped it open before gasping and putting a hand over his mouth, trying to fight back nausea. The last person he would have ever wanted to see in a case file of a serial domestic abuser was his goddaughter. Howell scrunched his eyebrows up “Are you alright Captain?” Will nodded and hesitantly flipped through the case, feeling sicker and sicker the more he read of her report as well as when he looked through what his officer had added on from the other cases. When the other women all reported sexual assault, he barely held back the nausea, praying that hadn’t happened to Ella. Will barely managed to look through the photos and medical reports before shutting the file and barely managing to make eye contact with his officer. “Officer Howell, the other women all reported sexual abuse, did Ella Hotchner include that in her report?” “No sir, she didn’t, however her relationship lasted approximately 8 months, while the others were all nearly at least a year and a half long. If he’s following this pattern, he could have not gotten to that before she tried to end the relationship.” Will nodded and tried to take comfort that at least that might not have happened. He thought for a moment before saying “I believe we need to bring the FBI in on this, too much of this is outside our jurisdiction, and they will be able to prosecute him for all his crimes across state lines, however before we do that, I would like to talk to her and explain what needs to happen.” Howell nodded “I can have her come to the station, or did you want to go to her?” “We’ll go to her. It’s nearly 6 at night.” “Sir, she informed me that she would not be staying at her apartment for a while, but with her parents because she has a very bad concussion and cannot stay alone, in combination with her other injuries. She said she would be at her parents' house but I do not have that address.” Will shook his head, “I do, let’s go, you’re coming too.” Howell blinked “Oh, do you know her parents then Sir?” Will nodded as he reached for his coat and put his weapon in the holster, “Ella… is my goddaughter, Officer Howell.” Howell’s eyes widened, “Oh Sir, I’m sorry, I had no idea.” Will just shook his head “Let’s go, bring the file.” The two left his office and Will stopped by the conference room that the BAU was all working in for the night trying to review what they knew and their profile. Officer Howell followed his boss but stayed in the doorway slightly confused. 

Will walked over to JJ and gave her a quick kiss making Henry jokingly gag so Will flicked his son’s ear before saying to JJ, “I’m going to be home late cher, Officer Howell and I need to go talk to a victim.” JJ nodded and said, “That’s fine, I think we’re all wrapping up soon to get some sleep, anything we can help with if you’re going out this late at night.” Will shook his head, “Not yet, though I’ll probably show you guys this case tomorrow if our victim will let me bounce it up to the FBI.” JJ just nodded slightly confused and Derek poked his friend from where he was standing next to JJ before saying “Really you’re going to say that to a bunch of FBI agents and not give us details.” Will shook his head not even laughing at his friend’s quip, “It’s a domestic abuse case, but I want to talk to the victim first.” Derek mumbled under his breath “Jesus did someone go on a spree or something, Savannah now you.” Will titled his head in confusion before looking to Howell. “Who was the doctor that sent you those medical reports?” Howell opened the file and flipped through to the proper page before saying “Dr. Savannah Hayes-Morgan, Sir.” Will sighed, and gave his wife another kiss before walking to the door with his officer minion following him in silence until the got to the car and he said: “I’m sorry Sir, but what was the importance of who the doctor was?” Will sighed “Not that I ever expected to explain this out loud but here we go. The BAU team you saw in there is a weird, not blood related, but still family, the woman I kissed is my wife, JJ, the man who gagged is our son. The oldest man in there was SSA Derek Morgan, wife of the doctor. Their son, SSA Hank Morgan is Ella’s mother’s godchild. One of the agents in there was SSA Hotchner, he is the brother of Ella. There a million other connections I could explain, but we’re family, meaning I’m not looking forward to talking to my goddaughter, a girl that I love as if she were my daughter, and telling her that she can’t hide this from her family any more, because I need to bring them in on her case, meaning all those details are going to be exposed.” Officer Howell just absorbed that before saying “Wow, she said in her original report that originally she didn’t want to file anything because she was scared of her family of FBI agents finding out and thinking badly of her, I thought she was exaggerating but wow.” Will nodded “So yeah, this is going to probably be awkward as hell and she’s going to need someone to allow her to distance herself, who’s not family. But she will also probably close in on herself because she is the world’s best compartmentalizer third only to her mother SSA Emily Prentiss-Hotchner and grandmother ex-Ambassador to the UN, Ambassador Elizabeth Prentiss. Which means we’re also going to be prying information out of her.” 

The two sat in contemplative silence for the rest of the car ride before pulling up outside Emily and Aaron’s house. They got out and walked up, knocking on the door at 6:45.

Aaron opened the door so the two women in his house didn’t have to get up from the sofa. “How may I… Oh Will, come in, no offense, but why are you here…. And I’m sorry, who are you?” The two stepped in and Aaron shut the door before turning to the two guests so Howell spoke, “Officer Anthony Howell, Agent, I took your daughter’s original report. The Captain and I are here because we needed to talk to Ms. Hotchner regarding her case.” Aaron raised his eyebrows before turning his gaze onto Will, “At 6:45 at night?” Will sighed “There was a change in her case, and we’re probably going to be asking the FBI to look at her case too, but especially as, well, it’s Ella I wanted to talk to her beforehand since she clearly put effort into making sure none of us knew.” Aaron sighed but nodded, “Alright, she and Em are laying on the couch, we were going to make dinner soon so just don’t take all night.” Will thanked him “Course Aaron, thanks.”

Howell followed his boss into the living room and saw Ella, cringing slightly that her bruises had gotten even darker since he saw her that morning, but schooling his face when Ella looked up and said “Uncle Will… Officer Howell, what are you guys doing here?” Will smiled gently at her, “We need to talk about your case El, do you want to go to an office or stay in here?” Ella just pushed herself up slowly with her mom’s help to a sitting position, “Here’s fine, I’m not supposed to walk unnecessarily anyway.” Emily stood up at a look from Will, “I’m going to go make sure your dad doesn’t burn the house down cooking dinner, alright?” Ella nodded and her mother left the room.

Howell sat on a chair next to the sofa while Will sat next to her on the sofa, wrapping an arm around her and letting her lean on him as they had just uprooted her from what he knew to be one of the only comfortable positions with broken ribs, which he had noted from the medical report. Howell was the first one to speak “Ella, I was working on your case when I noticed something that I had to bring to Captain because your case is a little more complex than it looks. The man who did this to you, Alex Marcus, you’re not the first one he’s done it to. He’s done this in at least 4 other states that we know of over the last 5 or so years. These women all filed nearly identical reports to yours, the same man, and there are restraining orders on him there, as well as arrest warrants out on him in those four states. He goes on the run to a new state right after the woman tries to break up with him and police reports are filed.” He paused and Ella looked confused “So what, you can’t catch him? Can’t prosecute him?” Howell shook his head “No ma’am, we could still prosecute this, but we’re bringing the FBI in on it so that they can prosecute him for his crimes against you, as well as in Washington, Nevada, Texas, and Illinois.” Ella shook her head quickly, “No, you can’t do that, that’s the problem, as soon as my name is on an FBI case my Aunt Pen, she’s a technical analyst, she’ll find out in less than an hour, I don’t want my whole family to know. The doctor I went to, she barely convinced me to file a report at all, or tell my parents, and you want my whole family to find out! That’s not happening!” Will stepped up and tried to calm her down, “Shhh El, breathe, look, it’s obvious you didn’t want any of us to know, but I do, your parents do, Sav does, did anyone judge you?” “No.” “Exactly, and none of them will judge you, but we need to bring them in, to get justice for not just you, but his 4 other victims that police couldn’t catch.” “I don’t really have a choice in this with that guilt trip… when?” she sighed. Will gave her a kiss on the head and said: “Tomorrow baby, we want to try and get him before he leaves DC.” Ella sighed and buried her head in his shoulder before saying “I don’t have to be there, right?” “No El, you don’t, Spencer’s team is already at the station on a murder case, I think I’ll ask JJ to bring Derek and y’r papa, Em, and Penelope so everyone that matters is in on it at once.” “But mom said she was staying home with me tomorrow.” “Dat’s fine den princess, she clearly already knows.” Ella nodded and just leaned on her Uncle before saying “okay.” Will kissed her head and got up before helping her lay back down, and heading out to the kitchen with Howell following him.

Emily was the first to speak “So what’s going on Will?” Will looked at her and Aaron before saying “This guy, Alex Marcus, he’s got a history of abusing women, so tomorrow morning I’m going to ask JJ to bring the BAU in, he’s got arrest warrants in 4 different states, and by lunch tomorrow, it’ll be 4 plus DC. As soon as the warrant goes out on him, he skips town and chooses a new state to pick a new girl in.” They both nodded and Aaron said, “Done, it’s a BAU case, they’re the only agents I want working my daughter’s case, I’m going to probably come with them tomorrow because I want to help.” Will nodded “I assumed as much, I’m going to ask Jay tonight to have Derek and her come back, as well as you and Pen, Em, Ella said you were taking tomorrow off otherwise I would have you come too, but you already know most of it I’m guessing. Emily and Aaron nodded their agreement so after quick goodbyes, Will and Howell went back to the station.

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JJ was waiting for Will when he finally got home that night. They sat down to a late dinner and finally JJ couldn’t wait any longer, “So what’s up with this case you mentioned?” Will sent her a slight smile, but that was all he could manage when thinking about the case, “This week, we came across this abuser, completely normal case, until Officer Howell ran him through the national database and got not one other hit, but 4 arrest warrants, in 4 different states, against this man, nearly identical reports, and as soon the arrest warrant and restraining orders are approved, he skips town, and disappears to another state. Hopefully, DC is the last one.” JJ nodded “Sounds like, unfortunately, a basic BAU case, what’s the issue?” Will sighed, “The woman, that filed the report here in DC… It was Ella.” JJ just froze before sputtering out “I’m sorry, Ella…” Will nodded “As in our goddaughter, Ella Hotchner.” JJ shook her head, “No, no, she wouldn’t, she-she would’ve told someone, she grew up hearing about these cases, she knows that’s not okay, she would’ve told someone.” A tear slipped down her cheek before she finally said “You’re not making that up, are you? She, oh god. How-how long was she with him? Was it this Alex we never met?” Will nodded “His name is Alex Marcus, he’s 25, and from Officer Howell’s report, they were together 8 months before Savannah convinced her something was wrong and filed a report against him on Monday.” JJ pressed her head into her hands, “Why, why would she stay with him that long. She-she knows that’s abuse… right?” Will grabbed her hands, “I think she does now, but she stayed because he convinced her she deserved it, just like so many other domestic abuse cases. Savannah, bless her, was the biggest turning point, she caught the signs that not one of us noticed, and convinced her to press charges and get a restraining order, and to tell Aaron and Em. Howell’s been helping her too, his sister went through the same thing, and was just as scared to tell because he and a lot of their family is law enforcement, and had the same mindset that they couldn’t tell, their parents were LEO’s obviously it’s their fault, they should’ve known better, been able to stop it.” JJ let out a little cry, “But no, that’s not her fault, even if she was an Agent herself it still doesn’t make it her fault.” Will nodded “I know cher, but she’s spent who knows how much of the last 8 months believing she’s screwing up constantly, that she deserves it, that it’s her fault. But we’re all going to be there for her, no judgment, just helping her move on.” JJ nodded and they finished dinner with small, meaningless conversation.

At 10:00 Ella decided to head up to bed at the Hotchner house, because her day had been thoroughly exhausting, and she knew she wasn’t going to sleep well tonight. She said goodnight to her father and went upstairs with her mom helping her up the stairs. Emily offered to help her change but was quickly shooed out of the room, Ella changed her shorts relatively easily, but went to change her shirt and got it stuck on her cast. She let out a grumbled string of curses making Emily snicker to herself on the other side of the door. A minute of fruitless tugging later and Ella sighed “Mom.” Emily snorted at her defeated acceptance before saying “Yes?” “I’m stuck.” “Do you need help?” “That would be preferable to me cutting my shirt off with scissors.” Emily laughed as she pushed open the door, to see her daughter with one arm almost out and her casted arm caught in the other sleeve, twisted up around her neck. Emily walked over and barely contained her gasp as the sight of her daughter’s stomach but continued anyway, gently pulling the shirt off the cast and over her head. She cringed as she saw her daughter’s back, but Ella caught it this time and sighed, “I promise it’s not as bad as it looks mom, I’ve always bruised easily, you know that.” Emily’s voice wavered slightly as she said: “Baby, your stomach is almost completely back and blue, and your back is almost as bad with the red welts, you don’t need to downplay it.” Emily continued helping her daughter get dressed before Ella said in a light voice trying to lighten the mood, “Hey, now dad and I match at least.” Emily shook her head “Yeah, you sorta do baby girl, that’s not a good thing though.” Ella just laid back on the bed sighing as the weight on her ribs eased up. Emily pulled the blankets over her daughter and kissed her forehead, “I’ll be up in 2 hours to wake you up since dad still has work tomorrow and I’m taking off.” Ella nodded and slipped into sleep almost immediately.

Emily went back downstairs and cuddled up to her husband on the couch, trying to fight the tears, but safe, with her daughter asleep upstairs, she failed and the sobs poured out as she tried to quiet them against Aaron’s chest. “What’s wrong love?” Once Emily was able to speak again she said: “I had to help Ella change her shirt, oh my god Aaron seh looks like she belongs in a case file, her stomach is probably 80% bruised and her back is all bruised with red welts crisscrossing it.” Aaron felt his gut churning as he tried to comfort his wife, thinking of all the things he wanted to do to this man.

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The next morning the BAU A team showed up bright and early and got to work in their conference room. It was about 8:30 when the door opened and the team looked up confused at who could need them, only to be even more surprised when JJ, Derek, Hotch, and Penelope walked in. Though Henry and Hank were a little surprised to see their parents, they had been there yesterday so it wasn’t a big shock. Jack, however, did a massive double-take seeing his dad show up. It wasn’t every day an Assistant Director of the FBI came on a case, and they had actually made a lot of progress the previous day and that morning. Besides, they had nearly finalized a preliminary profile and were about to send some filters to Garcia to start narrowing the list of suspects in the area. Jack was the first one to speak “Da-Assistant Director Hotchner, what are you all doing here, Sir?” The whole team barely contained snickers at his formality but Derek just flat out said to Hotch, “Bet that’s the most polite way your son has ever addressed you Hotch.” The team roared in laughter for a moment while Hotch sent Derek a glare while Jack felt the need to defend himself. “Hey, Derek, rude, I was never that bad.” All of the oldest agents in the room snorted and it was Garcia who said: “Oh right, then who was it that ran away and had your dad calling me in a near panic attack because he needed me to trace their phone when they were a teenager?” Jack sulked, “Me.” Garcia nodded shortly “Mhm.” Henry piped up “you know I never did thank you for that little event, do you have any clue the lecture I got about how if I ever ran away for a night like that my dad would kick my butt.” Hank piped up “Preaching to the choir Henry.” Jack just snorted “Right, you guys got lectured.” Reid made eye contact with the group still near the door silently amused that the ‘kids’ had forgotten their parents were in the room for the most part. Derek cleared his throat and every pair of eyes that had been whining about their parents snapped up to him, before Reid took pity on them and said: “I think it was a valid question though, what are all you guys doing here?” Garcia shrugged “Honestly, I don’t know, JJ just grabbed me and my hot stuff and the bossman and said it was time to go. Which I might add that the Oracle of Knowledge is none too pleased with.”

Will walked in right then and over to the free end of the table where everyone could see him and he cleared his throat before saying, “I have another case that I needed to bring the FBI in on, and while it wouldn’t normally be a BAU case because we already know who the suspect is, Aaron insisted that you guys were the only team he wanted working this case.” Odd looks were directed to Hotch who said nothing and Will continued speaking, “On Monday we had a woman come in to file a case against her boyfriend, as well as get a restraining order against him. Officer Howell took the report and after a complication of the case on Wednesday morning that is unnecessary to explain, he was working on putting the case together late yesterday night so he could get them in front of a judge at 9 am this morning. We learned last night, however, that this isn’t just a local case. The man has arrest warrants out on him in 4 other states, as well as restraining orders, all for the same thing. From looking through reports from the 5 women, he is a perfect gentleman for a few months, before becoming more and more abusive over the course of the relationship. The victims all report horrific physical abuse, as well as the first four reported sexual abuse, though the last did not. Her relationship was the shortest by a significant margin though so Officer Howell’s assumption, which I am inclined to agree with, is he just hadn’t gotten there yet.”

The team nodded slowly before Reid spoke: “So you want the FBI to arrest him so that he can be charged in more than just DC?” Will nodded. Derek was the one to speak up “I feel like we’re missing something important here, Will.” Will nodded and opened his mouth to speak before sending a slightly desperate look to Hotch and his wife, not sure he was up to repeating that the last victim was his goddaughter yet again. Hotch swallowed hard and stepped forward to continue. “What… what Will hasn’t explained yet, and why you're all in here at once, is that his latest victim here in DC, was, um, Ella.” The room seemed to be frozen in time for a moment before Jack finally erupted “WHAT! I cannot possibly have heard you right, my sister was not in a relationship with this psycho.” Aaron nodded and Jack still fuming slightly asked hostilely “She’s not alone right now right?” Aaron shook his head “No, Emily stayed home with her today, she’s at our house, she couldn’t stay by herself last night because of her concussion.” Jack’s grip on the pen he happened to be holding tightened so hard at the reminder that his baby sister was hurt that it snapped in half, ink dripping onto his hand. “Fuck.” A smile briefly skittered over Morgan’s face, knowing he'd had much more damaging, to walls at least, reactions to bad news, before his face hardened again in pure anger over what Hotch had just said.

Derek looked to Will, “Is that what you were talking about with that Officer yesterday? Who you were going to see?” Will nodded, “I knew I needed to bump the case up because of his other victims, but I needed to ask her first.” “So Savannah knew.” Will nodded, “Yes, she treated Ella’s last couple of injuries, both on Monday and Sunday, though from what I’ve read in the report, and from talking to Ella last night, at the beginning Ella begged me not to tell anyone before agreeing for you guys to know, so she didn’t hide anything by her own choice.” Derek nodded and stepped back allowing Henry to ask “Why didn’t she tell us, we all would’ve helped?” “I actually asked myself the same thing last night, but Officer Howell said that she had explained it a little to him when he took her report, but more than just any abuse victim, she was embarrassed because her whole family was law enforcement so she should have realized it wasn’t right, she shouldn’t have stayed for so long, she should’ve been able to fight back, those kinds of arguments, so she didn’t want anyone to know and think badly about her I suppose.” 

The team pondered that for the moment before Jack finally asked: “I’m assuming she was hurt badly and that’s why she reported it, how badly hurt is my sister, Will?” Will looked to Aaron before saying, “I have the whole case file here and I could give you the medical report, but she spent the night at your house so Hotch would probably know better.” Jack narrowed his serious gaze onto his father who said: “From what Emily and I discussed and what Savannah told her when she got her from the office yesterday, she has a broken arm, 2 cracked ribs, a broken ankle-but that’s not as new apparently-as well as a definite concussion, and from what Emily described when she helped her get dressed, horrific bruising all over her torso and back as well as scarring that looked relatively new on her back.” The whole group cringed at that description, and Jack barely managed to get out his next question “Was she-was she raped?” Will answered that one, “We don’t think so, she didn’t include it in her report if she was, but her relationship with him was much shorter, 8 months rather than nearly a year and a half like a lot of the others, so I’m hopeful that it didn’t happen.” Jack nodded but internally was just praying that his Uncle was right and that hadn’t happened.

Hank was the next one to speak “What was this asshole’s name?” Will internally laughed at Derek’s wide-eyed look directed to his son, not used to seeing him swear in his presence, adult or not, before responding, “Alex Marcus. The file should be in Garcia’s inbox by now so she can work her magic.” Penelope grinned evilly and set her laptop down, getting to work at simultaneously hunting this sicko who dared to hurt one of her precious people, as well as destroying every aspect of his life that she could in the process.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Each little story snippet was going to be one chapter on its own but this one has gotten too freakin long. Pt 2 of this story coming in a few days.


End file.
